I don wanna do the whole predictions.. But my pick is NZ to win and SL to finish runner up. Too much attention on India, RSA, Australia and England (coz they are hosts) means these guys will do very well without being noticed and then turn it on in the knock out stages.

Winner: England
Last Place finisher: Netherlands
total run scorer: Taylor
highest individual innings: Ryder
fastest fifty: Wright
Most wickets: Sidebottom
Most economical bowler: Vettori
Best match bowling figures: Muralidharan
Most runouts: De Villers
most spectacular catch: Collingwood
First batsman to bleed on the pitch: Some WI in a warm-up game
best under 23 player: Broad
best over 33 player: Kallis
Player of the tournament: Taylor
biggest flop: Sehwag
random event: Ireland defeating India

Winner: India (New Zealand should though)
Last Place finisher: Scotland
Highest run scorer: Taylor
Highest individual innings: Watson
Fastest fifty: Yuvraj
Most wickets: Malinga
Most economical bowler: Vettori
Best match bowling figures: Vettori
Most runouts: N McCullum
most spectacular catch: AB/Dilshan/N McCullum
First batsman to bleed on the pitch: Oram while trying to catch
best under 23 player: Raina
best over 33 player: Murali
Player of the tournament: Rossco
biggest flop: England
random event: New Zealand to lose in the semi's for the umpteenth time in a row

Winner: South Africa
Last Place finisher: Scotland
total run scorer: AB de Villiers
highest individual innings: Kevin Pietersen
fastest fifty: Shahid Afridi
Most wickets: Lasith Malinga
Most economical bowler: Johan Botha
Best match bowling figures: Umar Gul 4-17 vs Netherlands
Most runouts: Pakistan to choke and have a collective brain explosion when needing 5 to win from the last 3 overs
most spectacular catch: Suliemann Benn. It will be spectacular purely on the basis that he actually manages to catch it.
First batsman to bleed on the pitch: Jacques Kallis. He'll have a nosebleed at scoring at a SR greater than 110.
best under 23 player: Rohit Sharma
best over 33 player: Jacques Kallis
Player of the tournament: AB de Villiers
biggest flop: Sri Lanka
random event: Ireland will have India 6 or 7 down for not very much chasing a modest total. Dhoni will get a reprieve before calmly guiding India home with 3 balls to spare.

Last edited by Furball; 04-06-2009 at 09:35 AM.
Reason: Symonds being a douche.

I'm going for India, even before todays emphatic defeat of Pakistan. Admittedly however, the bowling unit will have to sharpen up a bit, and whether they can last the full length of the tournament after their busy recent months remains to be seen.

That article kinda lost it for me with a factual error in the first paragraph: stating that India are "odds on favourites" for the tournament. I think the author has no idea what odds on favourites actually means; and while India are favourites, I have not seen one odds sheet (and don't think I will) that has India odds on.

Winner: South Africa
Last Place finisher: Scotland
total run scorer: Ross Taylor
highest individual innings: Chris Gayle
fastest fifty: Graeme Smith
Most wickets: Dale Steyn
Most economical bowler: Ajantha Mendis
Best match bowling figures: Ajantha Mendis
Most runouts: De Villers
most spectacular catch: JP Duminy
First batsman to bleed on the pitch: First guy to face a bouncer from a reinvigorated Bret Lee
best under 23 player: Alex Kervezee
best over 33 player: Kallis
Player of the tournament: Taylor
biggest flop: Dirk Nannes
random event: Symonds becoming born again christian/teetotaller or West Indies making the final

I've just colated the responses from the prediction survey. There were 13 respondents although not every question was answered on all. Where someone has sat on the fence and offered up multiple choices, I've only included the first answer given.

The favourites for the categories according to results are [only listed results with multiple votes] (# of votes)